Qantas passenger doesn’t leave seat for 17-hour flight

A passenger on a 17-hour Qantas flight didn’t get up the entire time, according to researchers.

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For many travelers, a trip to a cramped airplane bathroom is unavoidable. But one man has beaten the odds, perhaps to a fault.

A passenger on the 17-hour Qantas flight from Perth, Australia, to London, England managed to stay in his seat for the entire ride, not once getting up to use the facilities, the Independent reported.

The man’s incredible, bladder-bursting feat baffled researchers at the University of Sydney, who are studying passenger comfort on long-haul flights, and were collaborating with the airline in order to conduct their research. Volunteers on Qantas’ longest flights wear monitors on their wrists and thighs that measure their anxiety levels, sleep patterns, and their ability to recover from jet lag. And, coincidentally, whenever they get up to go to the bathroom.

“The one thing we couldn’t believe was how little [he] moved. One subject took zero steps,” said Professor Stephen Simpson from the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney.

The man in question was also a business class passenger, so it is possible that his comfier seat made it easier to sit back, relax, and go to sleep during the flight. And it’s unclear how much he had to eat or drink.

The Qantas flight is one of the longest nonstop routes in the world, and the man’s ability to stay put even prompted some researchers to check and see if his monitors were even working properly.